B. Kadeda Burgess

WHO SHE IS:

Administrative Assistant, Office of Regulatory Affairs

YEARS AT PENN: 6; 4 in her current role.

WHAT SHE DOES: Burgess collects research submissions from principal investigators, research coordinators and students, puts together the proposals and disseminates them to the right place. “I love to see the younger ones come in who are going for their Ph.D’s,” she says.

QUESTIONS SHE GETS ASKED: Most queries are about the status of a research project submission—and if there’s anything the researcher can do to speed up the review process. Burgess also puts nervous new researchers unfamiliar with the process at ease. “I’m like the information center,” she says.

WHAT SHE LIKES ABOUT HER WORK: Burgess says she’s a kind of tour guide for researchers, which is fitting, because she has a background in international travel, having led group tours to Brazil and the Caribbean in her life before Penn.

Penn Current Express

Quoted Recently

“More companies are asking how they can separate themselves from the organization and instead tighten their connection to the game. The brand of FIFA is problematic but the game of soccer is still popular.”

— Kenneth L. Shropshire, director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative, on how the FIFA corruption scandal has caused some sponsors to be less concerned about partnering with the powerful soccer organization. FIFA tends to have the most leverage when negotiating deals with companies, but experts are wondering whether sponsors will be able to demand clauses that allow them to leave in cases of corruption. (The Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2015)